WA Premier Mark McGowan has been accused of wasting taxpayer money on advertising criticising the Federal Government in order to try and help Bill Shorten win the election.

The Nationals WA have written to the Public Sector Commission asking them to investigate $245,000 spent by the State Government last year on a series adverts which criticised the Federal Government for cutting housing funding for remote communities.

Named the “Don’t Walk Away” campaign, the advertising was launched in July last year and included newspaper advertisements and a website.

It comes after an investigation was launched in Victoria into $1 million spent by the Victorian Labor government on advertisements criticising the Federal Government.

Nationals MP Terry Redman, who wrote to the PSC on behalf of the party, said it had been a “politically motivated” advertising campaign that should not have been funded by the WA taxpayer.

“The McGowan Government’s bizarre decision to spend almost a quarter of a million dollars on an advertising campaign to tarnish the State’s relationship with the Commonwealth deserves scrutiny,” Mr Redman said.

“In my 14 years in politics I have never seen such a bizarre and misguided attempt at negotiating an outcome.”

Mr McGowan, however, said he would not apologise for standing up for people in remote communities.

“We will not apologise for standing up for people in remote communities - some of the most disadvantaged people in our state,” he said.

“The campaign urged the Federal Government to revisit its decision to cease the funding. Thanks in part to the campaign, WA was successful in securing a new $121million deal with the Commonwealth, up from the original unacceptable offer of $60million over three years.”

A PSC spokeswoman confirmed it had received correspondence from Mr Redman and was assessing whether the matter was within its jurisdiction.